The secrets of the success of TV3's election nights

In the last elections on Sunday, May 26, TV3 once again led the audience of the day in Catalonia in a notable way, with a share of 20.9%. Excellence in the use of virtual technology tools based on Avid's Orad HDVG solution, among the keys to success.

The keys to TV3's success in creating electoral programs can be found, mainly, in the effectiveness and informative rigor in the processing of data and in the excellence in the use of virtual technology tools solution based Orad HDVG of Avid.

Directed by Dani Bramon, made by Paulí Subirà and presented jointly by the journalists Ramon Pellicer and Lídia Heredia, on the main set, and by Núria Solé, Carles Prats and Raquel Sans, on the virtual set, the special electoral program on the night of May 26 was once again the most viewed in Catalonia, with a share of 20.9%, the best result in a municipal election since 2003.

The creation of E19: 26M It involved the coordination, before and during the program, of eleven specialists from the production and augmented reality team, nineteen from the data team, eight from production and nearly 150 professionals from the writing and production teams. A work that was rewarded with the indisputable response of the audience, who, once again, trusted TV3 for information, on an important and complex election day. The CCMA group, with a share of 26%, led the other communication groups. 3,252,000 viewers connected at some point with TV3 and 3/24, and the most watched minute was at 10:21 p.m., with 1,303,000 viewers and a 39.2% share.

Second screen

In these last elections, TV3 wanted to give more importance to the “second screen”. The idea was that the viewer could follow television while watching the iPad or mobile phone, being able to participate in complementary content. “Two Instagram 'live' to learn how it is done inside the program, and the possibility of receiving electoral 'push' (notifications) with the latest results, based on the geolocation, are some of the examples of this added value that the second screen provides,” explains Dani Bramon, director of the program E19: 26M. “In addition, we are beginning to work with 'big data' in such a way that population data (unemployment, age, etc.) can be created with the results obtained,” highlights Bramon.

This new way of getting information, which goes beyond the television program, was a complete success. 490,000 unique users accessed its content in digital media, a figure 37% higher than that registered on 28A. The 3/24 app also registered an audience of 82,000 unique users, 50% above the average, and the TV3 app had 60,000 unique users, which is 90% above its daily average. On Twitter, the election special program registered 15,000 messages and was the fourth most commented television program of the day in all of Spain.

Augmented virtual reality

More than 15 years ago, in 2003, with the municipal and regional elections, TV3 became the pioneer television in Spain in the use of augmented reality graphics in real time. Likewise, also in 2003, TV3 assumed, for the first time, its own data management.

In 2010, in the elections to the Parliament of Catalonia, TV3 and the information channel 24 hours, 3/24, created the “E” brand, for “special elections”, with a team of professionals who have since worked cohesively to continue evolving program by program. The news director of TV3, David Bassa, explains that “it is a team and a stable format for years.” "In this sense, we follow the BBC's strategy: its election program has been operating for many years and is evolving on the same basis. Thus, the viewer learns to interpret your way of explaining the data (as a means of communication) and that essence is maintained," he adds.

Dani Bramon explains that "from qualitative studies that are being carried out on the perceptions of viewers in this type of programs, it was seen that people did not understand the information that was told at election time, and a new system and another way of working was sought, where the audience would get used to understanding the data in a pedagogical way, with the help of virtual reality tools." Bramon also emphasizes the constant importance of informative rigor: "Above all, what worries us most is the information; we cannot allow there to be any incorrect information in the entire broadcast of the program."

In 2012, TV3 took a step by recording with drones for the creation of the initial mask of the program and moving to the Parliament of Catalonia. It was decided to work with augmented reality on the floor (a real scenario), in an unprecedented commitment. "We would have liked to record again, in the following years, with augmented reality inside the chamber, but we were only able to do it in 2015. It involved a large set-up and, in Catalonia, the political situation was precipitated. There were no longer elections every 4 years as usual and we could not always make a display of these proportions, and turning Parliament into a television set for so many days," explains Bramon.

In 2015, TV3 marked a turning point and innovation, with the use it made of augmented reality, which was confirmed with the nomination for the European TVB Awards, where TV3 was a finalist along with television stations such as the BBC and SkyNews. From this moment on, TV3 has received numerous visits from international television stations.

In the same 2015, TV3 also designed a robot that in some way replaced journalists, and that generated headlines. It is a algorithm that manages a large amount of datas and that, once programmed with data previously pre-recorded by the program's team of professionals, it is capable of writing a headline that summarizes the result of each of the 947 Catalan municipalities. “This robot had been used in other countries to generate economic or sports headlines, but it had not been used before to generate headlines in the electoral field,” highlights Bramon. "Thanks to this technology - David Bassa also explains -, we can not only automatically update all the municipalities and regions during the program, but above all on the portal and on the networks. In this sense, the volume of immediate information that we manage and offer is clearly superior to the rest of the media. It is our added value: the ability to explain to the entire audience, to the entire Catalan population, the results from everywhere. Wherever you live, you know that at TV3 we will be the first to inform you of your results, and We do it through all platforms.”

News of the E19

After the macro television program that TV3 did on April 28, it seemed impossible that it could be surpassed again. And once again, the E19: 26M It was a reference. TV3 did extensive monitoring of what was happening in Catalonia and Europe with connections to the headquarters of all the parties and the data center, with a team of editors, producers and graphic artists who interpreted all the data that was coming to them in real time, and with constant monitoring of social networks, in addition to several debate tables with experts and political analysts.

The special maintained the same structure as the previous electoral programs, dividing into four large blocks: “the countdown”, “the polls”, “the results” and “the analysis”. But it evolved into a new, more efficient way of working that allowed the viewer to conceive the data in a very clear and understandable way. One of them was adding a new control room.

Paulí Subirà, director of the program's production, explains that "we focus on what we have done in other programs, trying to improve what has not gone well, or what we believe we can do better, but obviously always looking for new ways to show the viewer what we want to report. We must think first about those who watch us. That is why in this program there are three control rooms, and one is specific for graphics."

As was done in 2015 in the elections to the Parliament of Catalonia. Beyond the two controls that were used, the control principal, where the more than 60 external signals arrived and where there is a “data robot”, and the second control, located on the main set where the analysis table is, a third control was created. “We went back to work, but this time at the TV3 facilities, with a exclusive control specialized in graphics, which functioned as a production room focused on visually generating the data that is projected on the virtual augmented reality set," highlights Paulí Subirà. "We had a team of 10 people working on graphics control. The fact of having a graphics person and an editor in charge of supplying, testing and assisting each of the presenters makes it easier to work separately on each augmented virtual reality 'set'. We saw that it was the solution to be able to test the specific scene while the program was running with the other presenters,” Subirà concludes.

Another novelty in 2019 was the creation, for the first time, of a “pactometer” by municipalities, which made it possible to know who could be mayor or what majorities were necessary to make each candidate mayor. Likewise, this “pactometer” also allowed a comparison to be made with the results of previous years.

May 26 was once again a key date, and TV3 wanted to surprise by also incorporating new scenarios, through augmented reality. Among them, an improved “elevator” –compared to that of 28A–, which went up one more floor to interpret the European results. And a municipal floor, which even allowed virtual entry into the plenary hall of the city councils of Barcelona, ​​Tarragona, Girona and Lleida.

TV3's real-time virtual graphics team has some of the best experts in this field in Europe. The control software on the graphics machines is its own and is created by a programming engineer from the TV3 team, which is why it can evolve and more control options can be achieved over the scenes and their presentation.

"Thanks to the great stars we have in the team, we are capable of being the reference in the Spanish league of electoral programs, and continue playing face to face in the European Champions. We have the best team imaginable, people who add their creativity to an unusual technological domain. Whether it is the programming engineer, the person in charge of virtual graphics or the director herself integrated into the graphics team. From all of them this program is born and becomes possible," points out Paulí Subirà.

The great team of professionals that TV3 has has managed to create graphics of very varied formats to display data in a pedagogical and understandable way. They have been used from the typical volumetric bars, through colored 'donuts', maps with the Catalan populations or the different countries in Europe, to a giant iPad, a virtual ceiling with the program's brand, or a textured representation of the Congress of Deputies, the Parliament of Catalonia or the plenary sessions of the city councils, among other creations.

Of the two sets, the main data set, the set with green chroma, had a complement of 6 cameras with virtual recreation capacity, this means with an Avid (Orad) “tracking” system and “render engine” for each camera. A crane-mounted camera and an overhead camera were part of this arrangement, where two more “renders” were added to produce full-screen graphics.

Tracking

On the main set, the program maintained, since the last 28A elections, the integration of data and augmented reality graphics in the physical environment of the analysis table. “On this set you can find one of the technological jewels of the program, on an Excalibur telescopic crane from the Muxart company, we assembled the control system of ‘tracking’ ‘red spy’ de Support Flu, in this way the system is capable of continuously supplying the camera positioning data, zoom aperture, focus... so that the Avid 'render engine', which works with this camera, can position any graphic with its references and in the desired space," explains Subirà.

"The narrative possibilities that are achieved with a 'sensored' crane and the Stype Gripe system are almost infinite. The barrier of basic explanation can be crossed through graphics, moving towards a scenario where the sum of tools and elements generate a clarification of what is explained. It is a qualitative leap that TV3 has been working on for a long time, and in which it wants to continue evolving," explains Paulí Subirà. ”

"These tools allow us to move the cameras with almost all the freedom imaginable, maintaining the embedded graphics. In this way, the leap is more spectacular in terms of television language. Only with a surprising, dynamic, attractive staging, and at the same time precise and understandable, can the informative mission commissioned as a public service medium be achieved. On television we either take risks or we don't make television," concludes Subirà.

In the future, TV3 is studying incorporating new graphics engines with “unreal” technology, new “engines” based on the almost real graphics with which video games are created, running in real time.

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